From: Joel@[censored by SEF web site]
To: feedback@elmerfudd.usREMOVE
Subject: liked your site
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:31:18 -0600

I agree with your points completely. The main problem I have is that the standard US response to everything is to impose fascism.

Terrorist attacks in the US? Just take away a few more rights, and keep taking away more rights, until we're safe. One has to disregard Ben Franklin's quote about trading freedom for safety ("Those that give up their freedom for a little safety deserve neither freedom or safety"), but what the heck. The ends and the means, and all of that.

I suspect that if people follow the advice on your website, the immediate reaction will not be contrition, but it will be a demand for more restrictions.

Remember the story beind Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle?" It was a book about the horrible ways meat plant workers were treated. People read the book, they were outraged, and immediately they reacted, missing the point.

Conditions didn't improve for meat plant workers. Laws were passed because people were outraged -- not at how the workers were treated, but at how filthy the meat plants were.

In other words, while I agree with your premise, I don't think the reaction will be what you want.

In the end, these things go in cycles. In a few years, people will lose interest in the gas hogs and move onto something else equally as stupid.

What can you do until then? About what you're doing. You'll never convince the Elmers, however, you might convince some people on the fence not to buy SUVs.

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